As we near the end; I remember the beginning....

Jonathan wrote:

The only thing I wish to say about all this.

I remember (barely) the very first shuttle launch. The first good look
at what the shuttle was about and all ll I remember thinking is just
how astonishingly powerful, complicated and well mostly the
...shear audacity of the whole thing.. Like nothing else.


I distinctly remember the first shuttle launch, mainly because I was there.

There were many crazy firsts for me that time.

1) First time I ever drove non-stop down along the east coast from New England
to Florida in a 1.4L Renault Le Car with 2 friends and co-workers. At the time
it was the only vehicle between the 3 of us road worthy enough to make the
trip. My car had bald tires and with a 5L V8, had terrible gas mileage. My
other friend's car, a 60's vintage Ford Galaxy 500, was being held together
almost literally by bondo body patch.

1a) When it was my turn to drive I discovered the annoyance that the normal
weight of my foot on the accelerator petal was enough to gradually (and I mean
gradually) drive the Renault above 70 mph. Besides my utter amazement that I
was achieving said speed, there was also the practical problem of trying to
regulate my speed below the speed limit with a car with a weak accelerator
spring and no cruise control. It was damned near impossible to maintain a
constant speed without continuously lifting my foot off the pedal. Finally I
figured out a way to twist my foot sideways and jam it somewhere between the
floorboard and the gas pedal in such a way to actually hold it into position
enough to maintain a constant speed. After 3 hours of driving like this my
foot fell totally asleep and after prying it loose at the end of my driving
shift I had to limp around a few minutes until the sensation of feeling
returned to my foot!

2) Stayed overnight in a motel near Titusville. Our first view of the shuttle
was of it illuminated at night:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010412.html

The next day we actually took a NASA tour of KSC that took us out to an
observation point maybe 1/2 mile from the pad where the shuttle stood,
un-fueled as yet, obviously. Can't believe how incredibly lucky we were to be
able to get that close. (This was not the bleachers at the VAB, this was a
pull out on the road to the pad that the tour bus took us to and allowed us to
get out and take pictures. The one restriction? Do not wonder off past the
mowed grass. 'gators and poisonous snakes are, after all, a great deterrent)...

3) ET was painted white.

4) Two days later up at 5am for the launch. Sitting in a huge traffic jam for
like 2-3 hrs just to get close enough to the causeway for a view of the pad.

5) Waiting until the scrub at T-33 seconds.

6) Minimum of 3 days to kill, DISNEYWORLD!!!

7) Debated whether to return to KSC for 2nd attempt in DISNEY parking lot.
Decided what-the-heck we've already traveled the distance!

8) Returned to the exit at the NASA Parkway (405) and US Rt 1. Camping out in
the exit ramp loop median.

Lat. 28.527226, Long.: -80.788892

Relatively sleepless night, worried someone would veer off US 1 and take out
our tent with us in it.

9). Up around 6am walking up causeway exit ramp to get a view of the pad.

10) LIFTOFF! Lots of steam and smoke and finally sight of shuttle emerging
from it all heading skyward. We were some 5-10 miles from the pad, so it all
did so silently at that distance.

11) Finally when shuttle reached about 30 degrees angle from horizon, the
sound wave from the pad finally reached us. Even at that distance an
impressive roar.

12) Watching SRB separation and shuttle disappear as a blue-white dot.

13) Remembering seeing the smoke trails from the SRBs form giant corkscrew
shapes in the sky.

14) Debating whether to do the ultimate insanity and take the Renault to
Edwards for the landing. Decided Renault probably wasn't up to the trip
and we didn't want to get stranded somewhere between Florida and California.

15) Being approached by some dude in a South Carolina truck stop while gassing
up the Renault on the way back being asked if we had any drugs to sell. I
suppose it was the combination of Yankee plates, a Renault Le Car and my
friend's long hair. (NO we didn't....)

16) Renault nearly conking out on us in Pennsylvania. Thereby validating
decision made in item #14.

17) Listening to the radio over concerns TPS may have failed due to the
'zipper' effect of tiles peeling off the bottom of the orbiter.

18) Watching the landing on TV and enjoying the scene with John Young nearly
jumping for joy during the visual inspection after landing.

Dave

http://blog.juggle.com/files/2010/08/RenaultLeCar.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3V0mRvh14Wc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuzuWmno-X8

And this one too...

http://www.nss.org/resources/library.../shuttle01.htm

I have to put my shuttle memories in the perspective of watching the early
vanguard attempts and Explorer launches on TV while in grade school. I was
already into science fiction, and the whole thing seemed like space was an
impossible dream. The payload weight to orbit was extremely small, the
radiation belts were discovered - it seemed real space travel would never
happen soon. Some Nobel scientists (not engineers) predicted we might put a
man in orbit in 50 years, in 150 years we'd be on the moon. Then came
Mercury, Gemini and Apollo - we were into space - but with hugh expendable
boosters driving the cost.

The concept of a shuttle was not new - Mongram even had kits of early Wiley
designs. The shuttle would make space travel common and affordable.

I worked the shuttle proposal at Grumman. The original dream was two manned
stages, both of which were reusable. Economics soon forced this down to the
present design. But still this hugh vehicle with many crew members and large
cargo bay would go up and return. Think back on Explorer I.

Even after Grumman lost to North American there was still hope for a great
future in space. The shuttle would make possible large space structures,
power plants in orbit , manned space stations in LEO and GEO, Manned Lunar
Trasfer Vehicles to mention a few. Overall operations would require Space
Tugs, Orbit Maneuvering Stages and other support vehicles. There would be at
least 7 shuttles and launches were planned for Kennedy and Vandenberg. $10
Million cost per launch and 2 week turnaround would result in at least 50
launches per year. Then reality set in and the real dream was never
realized.

The first flight for me was the Horizontal Flight test of Enterprise. We
watched live on Ceiling Mounted TVs at work and all cheered the successful
separation and landing. The the first real launch and hoping all went well
on the return. At one point NASA actually considered an un manned first
mission to assure it was safe.

My wife and I got to attend one of the Challenger launches. The night before
you could see the pad with the bright spotlights - brought back memories of
the movies like Rockship XM that first got me into sci-fi and interested in
space. It was a morning and the sight of shuttle climbing into the clear
blue sky and the hugh flames from the boosters was spectacular.

Then one morning at work one of our security guards rushed into out lab and
annoounced - "my wife just called - Challenger exploded". We were almost out
of space travel. The Government had put all their eggs in one basket to take
advantage of economy of mass use. The Air Force scrambled to produce the
Titan IV, expendables were here to stay.

Some how LEO operations with the shuttle seemed filled with slow tedious
operations, and more and more of the same. The public excitement of Mecury,
Gemini, and Apollo was never again established. We built a hugh space
station that promised all sorts of scientific, medical and manufacturing
breakthroughs non of which ever happened. The news concentrated on fixing
toilets. There were some missions like the Hubble Repair that were truly
fantastic achievements - but again somehow the general public didn't
appreciate what was happening.

I also remmber one morning reading one of the news boards when a message
came in - NASA jusr lost contact with Colombia - turn on the news. Live
coverage from NASA presented a confused situation - contact was lost - we're
working the problem. There was no radar following the return - all we knew
was communications was lost. By that point amateur astronomers in Texas who
were tracking and photographing the reentry had already posted movies of the
breakup on the net.

Well now it's almost over. The design obviously had it problems - like no
real provision for crew escape, and it tied launches to a manned vehicle
that would have been cheaper on an expendable among others.

But now we find ouselves with no manned access to space. There were no firm
plans for after Apollo - just many Apollo Applications studies. We destroyed
the ability and knowledge base to build Saturn Boosters, and there's no real
plan for what to do now. It really is the end of an era.


Val Kraut

My personal connections to the Shuttle era are not major, just
that of a SF fan and space geek who was about to hit my teens
as Apollo was winding down.

At one point, at the Man and his World fair that succeeded Expo
67 in Montreal until 1975, I had the opportunity to watch the
first ever live televised Soyuz launch, while speaking in Russian
to a couple of staffers at the Russian Pavilion.

One upgrade that STS 1 was in time for at our home was a
colour TV. In fact, by April 1981, we had two colour sets. By
running the cable extension back upstairs, I was able to put the
13 inch set atop the console 26 inch set, then tune them to
two different channels, so that any different camera angles
would be seen simultaneously by me. That was fun.

I still have the 13 inch set, though it's just itself been retired.
The
console set, of course, is long gone.

Then, in 1983, when NASA 905 hauled Enterprise back from
the Paris Air Show, it landed for a day in Ottawa. Two pals
picked me up, and they had legit press passes, so we got to
see both vehicles very up close.

Nine years later, on my first road trip south of the DC Beltway,
among my list of Things To Do was to see a Shuttle launch.

That mission was STS 47 which launched on Sept 12, 1992.
I and some friends in another vehicle got NASA car passes.
Remember that this is long before post 9/11 security issues.

We ended up all piling into one vehicle, a minivan, and in spite
of having the road be blocked by a motorcade for Dan Quayle
(At which point, another driver called out 'he just made fifty
new Democrats'), we got to the viewing area by the water,
and our wait wasn't a long one.

Endeavour took off right on time, and the sky was almost
100% clear. Just one tiny puff of cloud up there, nowhere
near the ascent path.

The experience of feeling the launch transients was amazing.
It came though the ground and through the air. Just wow.

Given the crowds, we did some other local stuff before hitting
the road, and our own time window wasn't big, as that was a
Saturday 10:35 AM launch, and we had to be in Long Island
by the following evening. We made it. Barely. :-)

Was the Shuttle hat it should have been ? No. But, it still
was pretty amazing, and has done quite a bit.

It's high time for the next vehicle, that will advance the state
of the art. But, that's not looking very likely...

"Andre Lieven" wrote in message
...
My personal connections to the Shuttle era are not major, just
that of a SF fan and space geek who was about to hit my teens
as Apollo was winding down.

Which makes you a year or two younger than me. I turned seven the day Gemini
3 flew.

Then, in 1983, when NASA 905 hauled Enterprise back from
the Paris Air Show, it landed for a day in Ottawa. Two pals
picked me up, and they had legit press passes, so we got to
see both vehicles very up close.

I saw it at Stansted Airport near London. I happened to be on holiday there
at the time so went along to see it - me and 299,999 others! I still have
the souvenir baseball cap I bought that day.
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

"Slipped the surly bonds of Earth...to touch the face of God."

On Mar 4, 12:34*pm, "GordonD" wrote:
"Andre Lieven" wrote in message

...

My personal connections to the Shuttle era are not major, just
that of a SF fan and space geek who was about to hit my teens
as Apollo was winding down.

Which makes you a year or two younger than me. I turned seven the
day Gemini 3 flew.

I'll put it this way... Vanguard 1, the oldest satellite still in
orbit,
is but four days older than I am.

But, I always outweighed it... :-)

Then, in 1983, when NASA 905 hauled Enterprise back from
the Paris Air Show, it landed for a day in Ottawa. Two pals
picked me up, and they had legit press passes, so we got to
see both vehicles very up close.

I saw it at Stansted Airport near London. I happened to be on holiday there
at the time so went along to see it - me and 299,999 others! I still have
the souvenir baseball cap I bought that day.

Kewl. I am happy that my dad saw it low flying over Montreal
while I was with my pals awaiting it landing in Ottawa that day.

Andre

I grew up on the cape or close enough anyway. Back in 1956 when we
arrived from Chicago. There was little more than sand and mosquitoes
and LOTS of mosquitoes. The folks eventually bought a house in Cocoa
Beach. I remember seeing my first launch. Back then everything was
all "secret" anyone who worked at the cape or down the road at Patrick
AFB who knew when a launch was going to take place was not allowed to
tell anyone. One evening Dad took us all out for a walk down to the
beach and told us to look up north towards the Cape. Tho he could not
tell us what was going on, of course we knew. esp as the gov was
shining huge searchlights all over the place....Anyway we walked along
the beach, which for a change was without 4 zillion mosquitoes as
there was quite a breeze off of the ocean. Apparently the launch was
delayed and we were just about ready to head on home when my brother
excitedly says "Look there it is". and sure enough we saw what we
later found out was a Vanguard taking off. It went up all of about
what seemed 3 or four inches from the distance then back down and
exploded. A little more than 10 years later I watched a Apollo Saturn
moon shot while playing golf across the river. An amazing place to
grow up